Veritaserum
by Annchen
Summary: A piece of advice for your own good: Don’t drink that pumpkin-juice!
1. Veritaserum

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Title: Veritaserum (1/2)

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Author: Annchen

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Summary: A piece of advice for your own good: Don't drink that pumpkin-juice!

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Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created by J.K. Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros. Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. 

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Warning: This fic is entirely Slytherin-centric, features some OCs (Quick! Run for the hills!!!"), has some ingredients that might be horribly cliché, mentions sex very briefly (Hee hee, I said a naughty word!), and also…. mentions boys kissing boys (gasp!). 

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A/N: This isn't very slashy but I still want to dedicate it to the maniacs and occasional sane people aboard the SS. Prince and Pauper. You guys somehow manages to keep my bunnies alive and kicking, and very pushy to be written :) Luff you all!

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Veritaserum…

"Truth or dare?" Pansy asked and wrinkled her nose, "That is so... first year."

"We never played truth or dare in our first year," Millicent commented.

"Of course we didn't," Pansy sneered, "We were **mature**!"

She then turned to Draco again and crossed her arms.

"You made us leave the party to say **this**?" She yelled and looked at the boys in front of her as if they where some kind of mould. Her friends simply looked bored and seemed to want to go back to the common room and the party.

"Come on, it'll be fun," Draco said and withdrew a vial from his robe-pocket, "and this will make it more interesting."

Five pairs of eyes stared blankly at him.

"It's Veritaserum," he explained in a low voice and tilted the vial so that the clear liquid reflected the torchlight. "I dare you to take some and then it'll be truth or truth from that point on."

Millicent studied her nails, Crabbe looked doubtful, but Pansy Parkinson was the one who spoke up.

"Isn't this… You know, dangerous?" She said, but she now had a wicked glint in her eye.

"You're not chickening out, are you Parkinson?" Draco mocked.

"I'll do it if you do it, _Malfoy_." She drawled back.

"What if we say something embarrassing?" Tracey Davis asked and chewed nervously on her thumbnail. Draco glared at her with disgust, he liked her better when she kept her mouth shut and let Pansy do the talking.

"We won't take a full dose, stupid." Draco sneered, "We'll just mix a drop of this with water or something else and we won't drink more than a mouthful each."

The others pondered this for a while. Draco knew that Crabbe and Goyle would most likely do it if put under enough pressure, but the girls where another matter entirely. Well, not Megan Greingrass, she would do anything that was forbidden. Pansy was a clever girl, she might need a bit of encouragement, Tracey was too nervous about embarrassing herself to be any fun, but if Millicent and Pansy did it so would she. 

"All right," Pansy said after a quick talk with her friends, "We're in."

Crabbe and Goyle went back to the common room to "borrow" something to eat and drink while the others headed to the sixth year boy's bedroom. Zabini was in his pyjamas and apparently didn't want company.

"Get OUT!" he shrieked, "Girls aren't allowed in here!"

"Then why are you in here Zabini?" Draco teased. Zabini made a rude gesture and turned his back to them sulking. 

Everyone ignored him. It took less than two minutes for his curiosity to win over his wounded pride.

"What are you doing?"

"None of your business," Malfoy barked and turned his back so that he shielded whatever they were doing from view.

"Let me join you or I'll go tell Snape," he demanded, not really expecting to get an answer.

"Sure," Malfoy said, but his grin chilled Blaise to the bone, "Why not?"

He had a bad feeling about this, but he couldn't chicken out now, could he?

..|||..

When Crabbe and Goyle returned carrying cookies and a pincher of pumpkin juice the others had already settled in a circle on the floor. Crabbe sat down between Draco and Pansy, while Goyle occupied the space between Millicent and Zabini, forcing the later to move closer to Draco. 

Draco opened one of his latest packages from home and generously handed out chocolate frogs, ice-mice and every-flavour beans to everyone, including Zabini much to his own surprise. All they needed now was something to mix the Veritaserum with. 

"Accio glass," Draco smiled triumphantly as a big glass came swooping in after a few anxious minutes. He caught it with a seekers effortless skill and proceeded to pour pumpkin juice in it. Zabini looked a bit queasy, but he wouldn't dare to say no to Draco Malfoy now when he finally got to do something with him and his friends.

"Would you do the honours, Zabini?" Draco asked sweetly and offered him the filled glass.

Zabini looked doubtfully at the drink in front of him. Pumpkin juice spiked with a few drops of Veritaserum. 

"Um… I… why don't you go first Malfoy?" He stuttered.

Draco didn't look very pleased with the response.

"I was only trying to be **polite,**" he hissed. "Crabbe?"

Vincent didn't move.

"Goyle?"

Gregory tried to hide behind Zabini.

"Pussies," Pansy sneered, "I'll start." She reached for the glass, took a small sip and handed the glass to Megan.

"How did it taste?" Tracey asked nervously.

"Like shi… like sh… like pumpkin juice." Pansy looked genuinely surprised. "Wow. I can't tell a lie. I can't even be sarcastic."

Tracey wet her lips with the spiked pumpkin juice and handed the glass to Millicent who passed it to Goyle. When Draco got the glass from Zabini he handed it over to Crabbe without tasting it.

"You go first," he said to his friend, "I'm busy with this chocolate frog right now."

"Ready to start asking?" Draco inquired. Almost everyone nodded in silence, trying to figure out the most productive questions. Surprisingly Zabini was the one who broke the silence.

"Pansy… Are you a virgin?" He asked with a wicked grin.

"No." Said Pansy immediately. 

The room fell silent. Only Tracey and Millicent looked like this wasn't news for them.

"What? Who?" Stuttered Draco.

"No, I'm not a virgin." Pansy said, she didn't look that uncomfortable with the situation. "I did it with Adrian Pucey in my third year."

Draco's throat went dry. This wasn't what he had expected when he suggested this little game. He reached for something to drink, gratefully accepting the glass of pumpkin juice Crabbe offered. He gulped the liquid down eagerly, almost draining the glass before Zabini snatched it from him.

"Careful!" He yelled, "Weren't we supposed to take only one sip each?"

Draco froze. He hadn't intended to take any Veritaserum at all, and now he had downed more than half a glass in one go. His stomach lurched, and he felt a bit ill, but he couldn't tell if that was due to the shock or the potion.

Pansy leaped on the opportunity.

"Are you really a death-eater?" She asked with genuine interest.

"Yeargh… No." he admitted. It was painful to try to lie under the influence of the drug and he felt nauseous when he didn't tell the truth immediately.

"Then why did you tell us so?" Goyle inquired.

"Because I wanted you to think I was better than you. And I thought some of you might have got the mark already."

"No way." Said Zabini. "I don't want it. Mum would kill me."

"My uncle say I'm too young." Pansy admitted.

"My parents too," said Crabbe and Goyle in unison.

"I don't want it," Millicent whispered.

"I was thinking of tattooing the mark on my arm anyway next holiday if I can't join the death-eaters," said Draco and then immediately clamped his hands over his mouth. This was scary, his precious secrets spilled from his lips effortless like pearls running from a broken necklace. He hadn't told that to anyone before.

"Why?" Crabbe asked, "It can't be like the real thing anyway."

"I know, but it'd look cool."

"I think it's a good idea," Pansy said. Draco looked surprised. He didn't really expect her to back him up on something like this.

"I'm going to force my father to let me joint on the Christmas holiday." Draco murmured, "Hopefully I'll get the real thing and not have to get that tattoo."

They all sat in silence for a while.

"I want to know if you are virgins or not." Pansy suddenly blurted. "It's only fair that you too have to tell."

The room grew even more silent. Pansy looked disappointed in the lack of response.

"Right," she sighed, "You're still a virgin, aren't you Megan?"

Megan glared at her. "How did you know?"

"Oh, come on. You talk way to much about sex, obviously a virgin."

"You don't have to rub it in," Megan sulked, "Go harass someone else."

Pansy smiled.

"Are you a virgin Draco?" she asked silkily.

"Y.. yes." he answered, feeling himself turn pink.

"Do you have a virginal arse too?" Zabini chuckled.

"Ahhg! Yes!" Yelled Draco. "And that wasn't funny."

The girls looked far more amused than they should.

"Goyle…" Pansy continued, "Virgin or not."

"Not." he said.

"Where? When? Who?" Millicent inquired.

"InasmallforestthissummerwithagirlnamedMandy." Goyle answered quickly.

"Mandy?" Pansy shrieked. "That Ravenclaw girl?"

"No!" Said Goyle, "You don't know her."

"No?" asked Pansy, "I know a lot of people. What's her surname?"

"I don't know."

"Why?" Tracey wanted to know, "Didn't you ask?"

"I don't know… I don't remember," he murmured.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Draco asked, trying to take the initiative back from the girls, "I thought friends were supposed to share stuff like that."

"She's not a pureblood," he whispered, "my dad would kill me."

"A halfblood is not that bad." Millicent said and put a comforting hand on his shoulder, "Look at Emmet Fay's son. His family didn't like it much, but no one tried to kill him."

Goyle simply murmured something inaudible.

"What was that?" Crabbe asked.

"She's a muggle!" Goyle yelled.

"Oh." Draco said. No one else spoke. "You just used her, right?" he continued.

"No," Goyle murmured.

"Then why…"

"She's pretty. I like her."

There wasn't really a good answer to that.

Pansy eventually got bored by the awkward silence and continued her interviewing.

"Crabbe. Have you ever had sex?" She tried to pronounce the word "sex" seducingly, but only managed to sound drunk.

"No." Crabbe suddenly seemed to find the floor very interesting. 

"Have you ever kissed someone?" She continued.

"Yes."

"Who?"

Crabbe looked like he was about to throw up but managed to growl his answer through gritted teeth. "Goyle."

Everyone now stared from Crabbe to Goyle. They looked equally embarrassed. Surprisingly Tracey was the one recovering first.

"You kissed each other?" She squeaked.

"Yes." They spoke in perfect unison.

"Do you want to do it again?" Millicent wanted to know.

The question was answered by two "Maybes", quickly followed by one "No" and one "Yes". An even more shocked silence followed.

"Crabbe?" Goyle finally asked, "Did you really mean that?"

"Yeah. I guess."

"But why?"

"..it's not like anyone else would want to kiss me," Crabbe murmured.

"That's not true!" Everyone turned to stare at Draco.

"Er… I mean, I know p… pl… at least one person who find you attractive," he blurted.

..|||..


	2. and pumpkin juice?

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Title: Veritaserum (2/2)

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Author: Annchen

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Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created by J.K. Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros. Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

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..and pumpkin juice?

Snape put down the book he was reading and massaged his neck. He decided to go check on his students a last time this evening. They usually behaved themselves, but one never knew. The quidditch match against Hufflepuff had ended in a spectacular victory, 230-10 to Slytherin, and the celebrations might get out of hands. He walked briskly through the torch-lit corridors and stopped outside the wall hiding the Slytherin common room.

"Raspberry," he barked and tapped his foot impatiently as the wall slid aside.

It was way too quiet in the common room. Somewhere in the Slytherin dungeons a student was doing something he shouldn't. Snape had a sixth sense regarding this kind of things. He ignored the students sleeping in the common room. That wasn't what he was looking for, and besides, the muscle ache they would have tomorrow from a night of sleep in a chair would be enough punishment.

He went in search for Frieda Jones, a seventh year prefect who could help him to check the girls dorms. Professor Dumbledore had kindly asked him not to storm into the girl's bedrooms on his inspection tours after the huge amount of howlers he had received first and only time he had done so. Snape had reluctantly obliged and tried to rely on the female prefects to keep law and order among the female Slytherins. The results had varied with the prefects but Miss Jones was one of the better ones he had experienced in his days.

Frieda was big for her age and strong enough to throw out boys that wandered into the wrong corridor or tried to sneak a peek in the girl's bathroom, but she didn't misuse her power. Not much, anyway. Half the Slytherins seemed to be convinced that she and Snape slept together, and for some strange reason Miss Jones encouraged the rumour. Like he'd ever do something that unprofessional. She was a charming girl, but not his type. She was **blonde** for starters, he preferred redheads.

Snape found Miss Jones in company of Miss Flatbottle in a corner of the common room. He coughed to get their attention and sent a blushing Miss Jones to inspect the situation in the girl's rooms while he damage checked the common room. He sent the students still awake to their bedrooms before continuing to the boys corridor.

The lights where out in the first years bedroom and everyone were in their beds, but not everyone was asleep.

"Harrison," he snapped, and the faint light from under the boy's duvet went out. Satisfied with this Snape continued to the next door where everyone seemed to be asleep. A quick spell assured that it was indeed so. Pale shadows of the boy's dreams floated over their beds for a while before fading.

Miss Jones caught up with him before he entered the next room. She reported that the bedrooms where quiet but that some of the girls in the higher years weren't in their beds. Snape narrowed his eyes, this meant that they where either asleep in the common room, in the wrong bedroom or somewhere else in the school. Years of experience told him that the second alternative where most likely. He skipped three doors and stopped in front of the seventh year boys room.

A game of strip poker was going on inside when Snape abruptly yanked the door open. Miss Figg squealed and tried to hide behind Mr. Warrington when she saw who had entered. He made a mental note to ask Madam Pomfrey to have a talk with the girl sometime soon, she had spent far too much time in the boys rooms lately. William Bole wore nothing more than a strategically placed sock and seemed a bit embarrassed by Snape's presence.

"It's time to go to bed." Snape snarled, the boys groaned disappointedly but his glare shut them up. 

"You better quit playing now anyway, Mr Bole," he said sternly, "you'll be doing hand jobs soon if you loose any more." 

As if to empathise his words a card exploded and set fire to some of the clothes piled in a heap on the floor. That finally got them to react. Snape didn't stay to watch the boys and girl try to rescue their clothes, he was sure that there wouldn't be more celebrating in there tonight. He closed the door behind him and waited patiently in the shadows with his back to the door until he heard Miss Figg silently hurry back to her own bedroom. Mission accomplished. But still…

Something was going on, and a little game of strip poker didn't usually make his sixth sense go off. He stopped to listen outside the sixth year's room. Too quiet. A quick spell confirmed his suspicions, a simple privacy charm was cast on the door, but that was soon undone. He laid his hand on the doorknob and prepared to repeat his little performance.

Seven guilty faces turned towards the door at his spectacular entrance. Miss Parkinson, Miss Davis, Miss Greingrass and Miss Bullstrode shouldn't be in the boys room at all, and the rest of them, Crabbe, Goyle, Malfoy and Zabini, looked very much like they had done something they shouldn't. Bingo. They all sat in a circle on the floor but thankfully no one had started to undress and they didn't look like they where planning some kind of orgy or virgin sacrifice in the near future. The only suspicious thing in the room except their guilty faces and a large pile of odd socks were a big glass containing a small amount of something that looked a lot like pumpkin-juice. He strode forward and snatched the glass from the floor. Seven panicked faces told him that he had found what he was looking for.

Snape sniffed the pumpkin-juice warily. He narrowed his eyes.

"Is this…" He began.

"Pumpkin juice and Veritaserum," Zabini filled in helpfully.

"Veritaserum." He repeated.

"Yes." Answered a chorus of voices. 

"Where…"

"From your potions cabinet." Chirped Parkinson.

"And who, pray tell, 'borrowed' this **highly dangerous** potion from my **locked** cabinet?" He said in the dangerous and silky voice that was known and feared among every student that had had the misfortune to attend Hogwarts with Snape as potions master.

He didn't really expect an answer. Slytherins were known to never admit a crime committed, and they seldom ratted on a fellow housemate. Snape expected to hear some kind of fairy tale that the Gryffindors somehow had planted the offending substance in the fifth year boy's dorm. He hadn't expected this. Everyone in the room pointed at Draco Malfoy and to his utter surprise Malfoy didn't deny anything.

"I did," he said and clamped his hand over his mouth as if to stop it from telling the truth.

Realisation dawned on the Professor; he really hoped he was wrong though.

"You drank this?" He asked. 

Silent nods from the entire room.

"How much of it?" He asked.

The answers varied from "a tiny sip" to "a couple of mouthfuls." to "About half that glass I guess, probably more," from Mr Malfoy.

"You fools!" He yelled, "You took Veritaserum mixed with **pumpkin juice**?"

The students blinked at him in surprise. Severus Snape rarely yelled at his students. Not the students of his house anyway. 

"I think I'm going to be sick," Malfoy said quietly.

"Of course you're going to be sick!" He yelled, "Does anything I say ever penetrate your thick skulls? You can't mix pumpkin juice and Veritaserum. It becomes **POISONOUS, **you morons! Consider yourselves lucky you only ingested small doses."

He grabbed Malfoy by the neck and ran out the door. The other students stared at him.

"What are you waiting for?" He yelled through the door. "Get to the infirmary **NOW**! Help each other. I'll be with you in a few minutes."

Snape dragged Draco to the nearest bathroom where he made him drink as much water he could. He summoned a potion and practically poured it down his throat. Draco had the time to reflect that the thick black potion tasted nicer than he thought it would – it looked like tar but tasted like peaches – before Snape bent him over one of the toilets. 

"What…" But Snape didn't wait for any questions, he pointed his wand at Draco's stomach.

"Eructo!"

Draco Malfoy spent the next twenty minutes of his life with what felt like vomiting his guts out. 

The End.

A/N: (again, because I felt like it…) I **know** the ending is a bit abrupt, but I didn't have the patience to polish on that. I hope you liked it, but if you didn't feel free to tell me **why** it sucked :)


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